Searching for ways to establish a good network of people who are willing to help with locating jobs is much more difficult than one might think. Other than trying to sell something to a relative, setting up a network that does not collapse the minute you try to use it is the next most difficult thing to do in truly hard times. There are many professional HR advisors who establish programs in church groups and other organizations who peddle an approach to networking that most people cannot succeed in implementing.
In the real world, asking friends, family, previous co-workers, and cold calling for contacts within companies for help in locating opportunities can be a surprisingly unproductive pursuit. No matter what “line?you concoct about your “exciting?research into furthering your career, everyone will quickly understand you are out of work, and asking them to spend time with helping you find your next job. Depending on your personality and ability to convince others to invest their energy in helping you locate possibilities, the exercise of using networking skills to locate a place in the “hidden?job market will be more difficult than the means presented in a one hour resource exploration seminar. Though it is true that many jobs are filled with people who are acquaintances or relatives of existing employees, your personal networking resources may play out early in the job search effort. If you are fortunate enough to find someone to help from your available contacts, it is worth trying.
One of the most encouraging, if not helpful networking resources available is based on the “misery loves company?principle. You can locate organized networking groups in your local area that form to pool resources and ideas for finding work. Some of these are professionally organized, while others are founded in churches as part of congregational assistance. The idea behind these formally organized groups is to gather together qualified people who are out of work, with people who have jobs. Many times, there will be far more people out of work participating in these groups than there are people with jobs that can help others. The advantage of these organized networks of people is in the ability to trade ideas, approaches, stories, and connections with others that may lead to opportunities. If nothing else, they provide a good misery outlet to help job seekers realize they are not alone in their difficulties, and a better feel for how tight the local job market truly is. By connecting with such groups, you may be able to find some techniques, resources, employers, and resume assistance that would cost a lot more in time and effort invested on your own.
Another source of information that can boost your ability to find a job is in locating someone who can provide job coaching assistance. There are varying levels of job coaching services available. Some of these resources can be found on internet job boards, search engines, resume writing services, and others. Depending on your financial resources, you may wish to try a few paid services that offer a proven track record for success, or stick with the information you can gather from free resources such as books, internet, or library research. The objective of using networking and job coaching as part of your job search arsenal is to expand the task beyond your own talents and abilities to find a way back from the unemployment line.
As with any tool you use to create open doors, you should record and organize every scrap of information that has proven truly useful to you, and save the information for future use. If you invest the time to do this effectively as you go, repeating the process will be much easier for you the next time you need to fire up your engines and get going again. Nobody in the world can succeed at everything completely on their own abilities and talent. Every venture requires someone who has the talent to accomplish tasks, and someone else who is willing to exploit that talent.
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